DU’s Drew Shore, Nick Shore and Chris Nutini visited a split-squad peewee practice with the Colorado Thunderbirds and Littleton Hawks A Red on Tuesday night at South Suburban Ice Arena. The Shores’ youngest brother, Baker, plays for the triple-A Thunderbirds, and Drew, Nick and Nutini grew up playing for the Hawks.

T-Birds coach Kent Murphy introduces DU defenseman Chris Nutini, who is the first of three Pios to speak to the boys about playing college hockey.

The Pioneers trio represent the three Littleton double-A national titles won by head coach Kent Murphy, who is now the Thunderbirds’ head coach. Nutini was on the 2001 team — Colorado’s first double-A national champion. Drew and Nick led the Hawks to the 2003 and 2005 national titles, respectively.

Also pictured is former DU defenseman Zach Blom, a Thunderbirds assistant coach and LHA co-director, and his father, Buddy, the former DU goalie who serves as the T-Birds’ goalie coach. The T-Birds also are coached by former LHA star Kevin Fredrick and former Avalanche defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn.

Great staff, eh?

The LHA peewees are coached by Kevin Whalen, who was the bench boss last season for the Thunderbirds’ U18 team.

Goalie Eric Comrie, the brother of former University of Denver star Paul Comrie, visited DU on Thursday with his parents and midget coach. Eric Comrie, 15, who plays for the L.A. Selects, is considered North America’s top 1995-born goalie. He will choose between college – DU is his only choice – and the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League (major-junior), beginning in 2013 or 2014.

In today’s college hockey notes in the paper, we had DU coach George Gwozdecky talking about freshman wing Beau Bennett’s lingering knee injury. Gwoz wasn’t sure if Bennett would participate much in Monday’s practice.

Today, I got word that Bennett is doubtful for this weekend’s series at Minnesota State. He already has missed five games since injuring the knee on rutted ice Dec. 3 at Minnesota-Duluth, and now he’s probably going to miss two more.

Sophomore wing Chris Knowlton also isn’t expected to travel to Mankato, Minn., on Thursday. He turned an ankle in practice. Good thing U.S. World Junior teammates Drew Shore and Jason Zucker are back with the Pioneers, but once again, the fourth line could be of the duct tape variety. Can you say, “Jo-EY, Jo-EY!” (as in Brehm _ a k a “Rudy”).

Also learned today that goalies Sam Brittain and Adam Murray might again rotate starts over the weekend. They each got a start in the past two sets at Alaska-Anchorage and against Northern Michigan, with Murray going 2-0 and Brittain 0-0-2. Of course, Brittain was the workhorse during the first half of the season and is competing with Zucker, among others, for the WCHA rookie of the year award.

I think we all expected Drew Shore to be named WCHA offensive player of the week, but I didn’t think the standout sophomore would have to share the honor. To be fair, however, Wisconsin defenseman Jake Gardiner deserved it too. Shore and Gardiner were named WCHA offensive players of the week after each contributed six points in two tournament games last weekend.

Shore had four goals and two assists in the 6-3 and 3-1 Denver Cup wins against Lake Superior State and Air Force, respectively. Gardiner had two goals and four helpers in a 4-4 tie against Michigan and 4-1 win against Michigan State in the College Hockey Showcase in Madison.

Shore beat out Gardiner for the Inside College Hockey (INCH) national player of the week award.

DU senior center Jesse Martin continues to recover at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn. As pretty much everyone in the North American hockey community knows, “Marty” suffered serious neck and head injuries in a Oct. 30 game at North Dakota and had surgery Nov. 8 in St. Paul to repair three fractures to his C2 vertebra. He is doing wonderfully and is scheduled to be transferred to Craig Hospital in Englewood this week. Here is the fourth and final excerpt of my conversation with Jesse.

JESSE MARTIN: “I’m really excited to be back in Denver, just to see my teammates and everyone who has been supporting me so much. I’m real excited to be able to thank each and every person, in-person. There is a little bit of a comfort zone there. It’s going to be a great experience to come back, and again, I’m just real excited to see all my teammates and friends, and really thank them from the bottom of my heart.”

Our conversation ended with a promise to talk again, in person, when he settles in at Craig Hospital. Before that, I asked him about hockey, about whether he thinks he will play at a competitive level again.

“That’s one thing that obviously crosses your mind, but I’m doing my very best to put it in the back of my mind,” he said. “As far as recovery is concerned, I’m just going to work as hard as I can to live a normal life.”